Kanye “Ye” West took to his Instagram account on Tuesday (Sept. 20) to announce that his publishing catalog is being put up for sale without his knowledge a day after Billboard reported the rapper is seeking a monumental valuation for his songs.
“Just like Taylor Swift … My publishing is being put up for sale without my knowledge … Not for sale,” he wrote on his Instagram Story.
Billboard reported that the songs generate $13.25 million in publishing royalties annually, and sources said West earns $5 million from his share, valuing the catalog at roughly $175 million. Also, West is seeking up to 35 times the catalog’s gross profit, a valuation higher than the usual 30 times most songwriters typically seek, and rarely receive even in the most high-profile cases.
In a follow-up post, West shared a screenshot showing a direct message of him asking someone to ask his former manager Gee Roberson if he knows who is attempting to sell the rights to West’s music. The person replied, “From Gee … Fake news … Of course every publisher wants to pitch [their] hardest to buy. SMH.”
West has released 12 studio albums in his career and it is unclear which, of any, albums he owns the masters to.
West is comparing his situation to Taylor Swift’s publicized fight to obtain her masters from her former manager Scooter Braun. Swift has said she lost the right to purchase ownership of her masters from Big Machine Records, the record label she signed with when she started her music career. The masters were sold to music manager Scooter Braun, who has denied that Swift was not given notice of the deal. Braun sold the ownership to Shamrock Capital, so Swift has been re-recording and re-releasing her first six albums to gain back a form of ownership.